Role Models
by shywr1ter
Summary: More Logan Cale birthday fic! Joshua has plans for Logan's birthday, but so does the birthday boy. No matter what, Max will get cake! No-virus, AU version of post-Manticore S2.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: Dark Angel borrowed, no profits realized.

**A/N:** It used to be tradition to post birthday fic on Logan's birthday, which in _Blah Blah Woof Woof_ was shown to be 11/11/88 – but it's been so quiet in Max/Logan land, I see there wasn't anything posted for him this year. (I tried but just couldn't finish to post on time either!) So, late but no less heartfelt, this little fic is my birthday present for Logan Cale. _Happy belated birthday, Loogie!_

**This story's setting:** IT can be read as a stand alone, but is a scene from a S2 AU I'm playing with in another fic-in-progress here on FFN, _Designation? What Designation?_, which parallels the first episodes in the second season but **without** the damn virus – and includes an alternate way of bringing Manticore to its knees and setting up a more palatable place for transgenics than Terminal City. (Though there's sort of a recap here, the AU in _Designation_ starts a few months after Max's "death," if you're curious.)

This scene is further into the AU chronology than _Designation_ is currently, but maybe one day I'll catch up to this point...

_**Role Models**_

Since the FBI raid on Manticore some seven weeks before, countless agencies, politicos and consultants had been working overtime to try to figure out just what was to be done about the mess made by those running Project Manticore – the living, breathing "mess" – many of whom were articulate, sentient creatures whose lives were horror stories created in the name of a perverted patriotism. The lofty goals of better soldiers, better armies, better service had somehow been lost in the rows upon rows of prison cells containing human – and inhuman – "clinical trials." The program, left to its own devices for nearly two decades, stood not only as a prime example of science left to flourish in an environment devoid of ethical restraint, but as a moral dilemma of enormous proportions: the government had created more than one hundred living souls of varying intelligence, skills, and capacities, and had hidden them away from the world, keeping them for the most part ignorant of society's expectations and laws. Given the transgenics' general lack of knowledge about how to cope outside of Manticore's walls, about what was allowed and what illegal, they could no more be let loose on the streets – for both their own safety and the community's – than they could remain prisoners. So the question they all wrestled with, across the country, in the "other" Washington – what was to be done about transgenics created by Uncle Sam's own Doctors Frankenstein?

Few of those at the old veterans' hospital where they remained were privy even to the identities of all those weighing in on the debate, and none from Seattle were invited to attend. But when the dust began to settle, one of the first decisions made was to _give_ the transgenics the hospital where they'd been kept locked up, its several acres and reasonably generous rein to requisition those things needed to set up a "transgenic city" while the finer points of reparations, education and relocation could be discussed. Even the most skeptical of them took it as a victory. Logan kept his thoughts of Native American reservations, and how those had worked out, to himself: at least for now it was an effort made to make things right...

With the announcement, the little community, with the makeshift "town counsel" that had developed and the fairly organized structure they had for passing information and sharing the ever increasing provisions, set about the business of making the old hospital their own little city, at least for the time being. They designated places for the community dining center, infirmary and information centers, though admittedly largely using what Manticore's people had set up, and got to work on updating them. They quickly added a couple bars, a movie theater and even a bowling alley, with the help of Logan's contacts and a little X-5 wheedling.

Logan had spend many of his waking hours on the hospital grounds since Max's return, at first simply to be near her and convince himself that she really was back, then from a sense of wanting to help her with what was important to _her_, to finally being swept up with the people and projects there, and the birth of this extraordinary new town. He'd found his niche in the technology center, where his long years of patching together randomly acquired, mismatched technology dovetailed well with the know-how of transgenics trained on state of the art equipment but baffled by how to repair rather than simply replace. With one thing leading to another, they managed to reconnect or, as needed, newly wire the place for internal video-audio communications, for internet, satellite, and teleservices, as well as install an enviable level of protection and surveillance technology. They were just now managing to obtain the hardware they needed to link the entire grounds, and Logan was the main source of creative ideas to incorporate seemingly incompatible equipment. Max had long before stopped feeling guilty about "dragging" him out there with her: he was having more fun with all the new "toys" Manticore had left behind, and the handful of techno-savvy transgenics, than she'd ever seen him have alone in his nest of computers.

One of the first projects Logan had tackled, though, was the very non-technical "debriefing" of the very first transgenic, Joshua. However, once the debrief had been completed, the pair continued meeting regularly, with Joshua's hunger to learn irresistible to Logan. They worked on language, on reading and writing; as time went on Logan added some current events to their discussions, as a bridge to the culture and customs of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. As a painter, Joshua worked long hours washing down the old, dingy walls and repainting them in light, airy tones, then going back and adding distinctive, creative trim, colorful touches or sweeping murals which even Mole grudgingly admitted made the place _theirs._ But nearly daily the men would meet, maybe for only thirty or forty minutes, for a "lesson." Often it was just a session of Joshua's questions about "outside" and what they all would face, going on into Seattle and on past, as the X-5s and some of the more humanoid others had done already on short trips, with relative ease.

Joshua had been fascinated with Logan from the moment he'd met the man. He was used to ordinaries being wary of him, and Logan had been a little bit, too, at first, but not really much more than Max had been. He had a funny sound around him when he walked, which Max soon explained was the "exo" that _let_ him walk. The idea of his disability intrigued Joshua – well aware of "differences" of the transgenics in their appearances and abilities, it hadn't occurred to him that ordinaries could be "different" too – none of the ordinaries with Manticore had been.

But along with his difference in walking, Logan was different than the others in many other ways. He was smart, and smart in ways that even the very smart transgenics were not. He was patient, and always listened with interest when Joshua spoke. He loved art and knew about painting; Max said he had very expensive paintings in his home, made by real artists. He could fix things and knew how a lot of things worked – he always said it was just the bad economy that made it necessary, but Joshua could see it gave Logan a sense of satisfaction to get his computers or other electronic things working – the same satisfaction he himself felt in finishing a good painting, or when he made an ugly room suddenly bright and calm with just some paint and his ideas about how to use it.

But even more than those things ... from the first time Joshua met Logan, he was intrigued with the man's demeanor – and even scent – around Max. And Max ... well, Max was different when Logan was with her. In tiny ways, she was different in _every_ way: her voice was a little bit softer, a tiny bit more lilting and musical ... her eyes were warmer and sparkled with animation, with fun ... with happiness. It was more than only being free again, because while she was happier out of her cage than inside it, she was even more so when Logan was in the room ... her body temperature went up a little and Max smelled ... _warmer._ More alive.

So did Logan.

Joshua asked Mole, once, what it all meant. Mole was older than a lot of the other transgenics; he was nearly as old as Joshua, and had been out around more ordinaries than Joshua had been. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about a lot of their ways. But at Joshua's question, Mole had just snorted and rolled his eyes and muttered something about groping around in the dark, so Joshua had just continued to watch. And read. And join the others in watching television once they had that hooked up as well.

It took only a few shows before Joshua got it. But he never did see anything on TV that was quite as complex – or quite as compelling, if he was honest with himself – as the daily, subtle interplay between Max and Logan...

It had been just another Wednesday, and after painting one of the front halls in the massive old building, Joshua came up to the large, central room where Logan and a couple of the others were sorting through the additional computer components, used and new, that they had recently acquired both from government shipments and their own, less official procurement methods. Since the order had some down, granting the place to the transgenics, they'd all been working around the clock to make it their own, and Joshua's lessons had been fit into their lunch breaks three days a week, and other, varied times on other days. Usually the others wandered down to the mess hall to eat, leaving the student and tutor alone. As he often did, Joshua brought lunch for them both, the dining hall staff now aware of why Joshua asked for two lunches "to go." Today's lunch of chili and cornbread – the latter a recipe from Logan's neighbor, no less – warmed the big man's hands as he entered the communications room. He found his mentor in his wheelchair this time, intently soldering some loose wires onto a perforated plate held firmly in his other hand. He looked up to see the shaggy head dip with a smile of greeting.

"Hey Joshua – lunchtime already?"

"Logan always say that," Joshua grinned.

"Yeah – time flies when you're warm and dry and playing with toys," Logan said with his own, answering grin, and he finished the wire he was soldering and put his things down carefully. Grabbing a rag to wipe off his hands, he deftly backed up, pivoted and crossed the room quickly to their usual bench, where Joshua was setting down their steaming bowls of chili.

"Wow – smells good," Logan murmured, fishing out the napkin-rolled silverware and handing one to Joshua.

Joshua looked at his friend, noting Logan's expression of simple, satisfied happiness, and thought about how the man who had looked so pale and disoriented when they met, still stunned with Max's return from the dead, seemed so settled now, there among all of them. He was clearly pleased to be working on restoring the broken equipment, and was happiest when he could be of help. Of course, he wasn't always this way. Joshua had certainly seen him wound up and ready for a fight – mostly about Manticore, and what was to happen to them all, as well as a couple other things that Max called "work-related" – but the man who used to walk but now couldn't, a man who easily could stay out with the ordinaries but seemed to _want_ to be with all of them as they build their new community, just seemed to radiate a contentment and calm that Joshua hadn't ever seen in anyone else.

Joshua knew that the reason Logan had been accepted as he'd been, the only ordinary who was considered one of them, was _this_ part of Logan. It wasn't just that he was Max's partner – her _lover,_ Joshua again considered the word he'd only recently learned fully – and that Max was one of the leaders here. It was Logan's contentment in their world, his clear joy at being a part of them. Even Mole and Alec couldn't deny his dedication or deny him a place in their community. Logan was one of them. One of the _best_ of them....

As they started spooning into the steaming chili, Joshua had just nodded in response to Logan's question about the newspaper he'd given him yesterday, and had started asking about one of the articles he didn't understand. He heard the nearing sounds first, of course; he heard better than most of the transgenics so of course could hear sooner than Logan. His olfactory sense was even more acute, and Max's scent identified her to Joshua before the light, quick pattern of her boots on the steps and in the hall did. But in only moments, Max appeared in the doorway then stopped, anguish on her pretty face. "Logan," she began, in a voice full of regret and pain. Joshua felt a stab of fear as to what it could mean. "Logan ..."

Max had stood, wavering, in the door, as if afraid to come closer and face whatever had happened. The cold fear gripping him, Joshua turned to his friend, wondering what could have upset Max so much. But to his complete, utter surprise, Logan's face had softened into a small, amused grin, watching Max at the doorway.

Joshua looked back at Max, dumbfounded, wondering how she'd take his response. She simply looked more apologetic and glided gracefully into the room, head bowed, almost as if in a surrender of sorts. Joshua cocked his head to the side, just watching now in confusion.

"Logan, why didn't you say something?" Max came close and timidly reached for Logan's hand, which took hers warmly as his smile widened for her. "I'm such a jerk..."

"Not you." He forgave her whatever it was, and Joshua saw Max slip into Logan's lap and into his arms, coming around her to hold her close.

As he kissed the top of her head, Max said "and out here, I can't even run out and grab some quick present and _pretend _I remembered what day it was..."

"Max ... it's not important..." he murmured, his grin not fading.

"Yes it is – at least for _cake_," she insisted.

Logan chuckled warmly in that sound that Joshua heard from him only when Max was near, with him, and happened to look up to see Joshua's worried, confused expression as he unabashedly gaped at the pair. With another, wry grin, he kissed Max's forehead again and suggested gently, "I think you've gotten Joshua worried that you committed some heinous crime..."

Max turned in Logan's lap and looked at him, almost unnoticed before in her guilt. "Oh – hey, Big Fellah. Sorry to just barge in..."

"Little Fellah okay? Not 'committed some heinous crime?'" he mimicked perfectly.

"No – well, yeah, I did ..." she turned back to Logan as she spoke, "but I think Logan is gonna let me off the hook..." Looking at the shaggy man's still confused expression, she explained, "it's Logan's birthday today, Joshua, and – I forgot. I lost track of the date, and with everything going on, I just ... forgot."

Logan shook it away. "I got the best gift anyone could get about seven weeks ago, when you came back home. Nothing could top that."

"Cake might," she pouted a little.

"Well, okay, maybe a _good_ cake..." he smiled for her and added, "but you thought of it and it's not even noon. We have time. Maybe we can even make one tonight, ourselves..."

Max's sly smile let Joshua know she felt much better than when she'd come in, that she knew Logan forgave her. Maybe she saw how happy he was, too. "Promise?" she asked. Even Joshua knew that sound now from Max, the one she used only for Logan – it meant she wasn't really asking – just sort of ... teasing. Asking about going home together.

"Promise." Logan answered just as Joshua knew he would. That sound she made always made Logan smile, and his smile made Max smile. Joshua watched, as always, riveted by the interplay, and saw it happen, just as always. And as always ... they kissed. Not long, because they weren't alone, but sweetly – happily.

Max broke the contact and, with a guilty glance to Joshua, got up and straightened her clothes a little. "Sorry I interrupted," she said to him, then glanced back to Logan, too. "I'll let you boys get back to it."

"Okay," Logan chuckled, his cheeks glowing, and he watched Max leave. Joshua watched him watching her. "Sorry," he added for Joshua, too. "Where were we?"

******

Logan had looked back to the text in front of him, and shook his thoughts back to the lesson he'd planned, remembering their discussion before Max came in. "Okay, Joshua, you said you were looking at yesterday's paper and you saw something you wanted to ask about?" He looked back up to see an unusually thoughtful expression on the canine features, and his eyebrows went up in question. "What?"

Joshua continued to look at him, clearly trying to work something out, maybe even what he wanted to ask. But as usual, Logan waited, his expression one of endless patience with his eager student, and Joshua finally tried, "today Logan's birthday." Logan smiled slightly and nodded. At that, he added, "Max forgot."

Logan chuckled softly and his smile was warm as he shrugged. "Yeah, but there's been so much going on. It's no big deal."

Joshua looked unconvinced. "Max looked like very big deal."

Logan shrugged again, but his small smile quirked up a bit in affection. "Nah, birthdays are mostly for kids' celebration ... or sometimes a big one is celebrated, you know – a big number, like fifty or thirty or seventy ... or important ones, like turning 'legal' at twenty one. And some people worry more about them than others..."

"But Logan not worry?" Logan smirked and shook his head, and Joshua pressed, "birthday number not a 'big one' today?"

Logan grinned. "Nope. Thirty two. Not big at all."

Joshua thought for a moment, then pressed, "but Max very upset when she remember – when she knew she forgot. No present, she say."

Logan thought back about the exchange Joshua had observed, and he smiled again fondly as he remembered Max's reaction. "Oh – well, yeah..." He drew a breath to collect his thoughts for a more thorough explanation. "Birthdays also can be important for people who are important to each other – families, friends..."

"Lovers?"

Logan's smile lightened his eyes at Joshua's use of the term they had now defined for him. "Lovers, especially, sometimes," he agreed. "It presents a challenge to the non-birthday partner of what to do to make the other partner happy, or surprise them, or do something special..."

"But not forget." Joshua nodded, now understanding Max's self-directed disappointment.

"It's not a big deal, Joshua – with everything going on..."

"And Max is 'present enough,'" Joshua quoted Logan's words from before.

Logan laughed softly, the sound warm and affectionate with thoughts of Max still lingering, musing at Joshua's quote as he remembered how seriously he'd meant his words. "Oh, yeah," he murmured. He was quiet a moment, then added, "I thought she had died, Joshua – she _did_ die, in my arms. When she showed up later ..." His eyes focused on a time in his painful past, and his voice took on a slightly different sound as he did, Joshua noticed. The big man remained quiet as Logan looked back at that time for another few moments before shaking free to meet his eyes again, the sign of very powerful, very moving memories. "_Every day_ I've had with her since then – that's present enough."

Joshua nodded and let Logan direct him back to the newspaper story he'd been asking about before Max came in. But what he'd seen these past weeks between the two, what he was learning about the culture he'd only glimpsed as a child ... he knew that Logan's birthday was important. To Max ... to him, because of all Logan had taught him and the kindness he had shown ... to _all_ the transgenics.

_Logan's birthday was important._ And it would be a ... a "challenge," as Logan had said, to him too, until he found a way to surprise him with something special...

******

To be continued...?


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Fitting that the original chapter of this story was a day late for Logan's 11/11 birthday two years ago, since inspiration for this update, as this year's birthday story, came too late for me to post on 11/11/11 (I'm so disappointed that I didn't make it!) Even so, here's my birthday present for Logan Cale this year, as well as a terribly late offering for our previously traditional Christmas in July. _Happy belated birthday, Loogie!_

Please see Ch. 1 for explanation about the AU-S2 in which this is set. Dedicated with smooches to those still checking in on BBWW – Merry Christmas in July (!) I miss you guys -

_**Role Models, **_**chapter 2**

Logan had been absolutely honest and sincere when he told Max that his birthday – or, her forgetting it – wasn't important, and that her returning to him, alive, was the best gift that he had ever gotten. He was just as honest when he told Joshua the same thing, that _every day_ since then had been a gift, no less real that the gift of life she'd given him by diving off a hotel roof to snatch him out of a free-fall toward an otherwise certain end.

He had gone from the deepest despair on losing her, the worst pain he'd ever known, to a sense of relief and joy not only with her return, but with her desire for _him_, and even now he found himself grinning to himself, a little dazed to find that absence had made the object of his own affection decide she wanted _him_, too, much the way he craved her. Logan still found it hard to worry much these days about anything beyond this tiny, life-altering fact and their newly entwined lives – Max was home, Max was in his arms and his bed, and all the rest was a sweet, perfect dream.

In fact, as he had admitted to her the second week she was back, finding her in his kitchen at 4:00 a.m. trying to take the edge off her voracious appetite after she'd worked thirty-eight hours straight at the facility and setting off his smoke alarm in the process, if she _had_ been able to cook without burning down his home, he'd have decided right then and there that he'd truly gone over the edge and it was all just a demented fantasy. Her little backhanded smack on his chest and her demand that he whip something up for her _right then_, since he was up anyway, just made him smile all the wider.

Max was home, and in his life, and nothing was more sweet than his life right now...

His words to Joshua, remembering the months that Max had been gone, reminded him of both the pain of that time and the miraculous healing of her return. It had been seven weeks now, even amid all the work to build the transgenics a home of their own, he and Max had only grown closer. Because of that, he would dare to offer _her_ a gift, for his birthday, and he had planned a romantic, elaborate, candle-lit dinner for just the two of them to warm her up for it. He found himself grinning again to think of it, pleased that she'd remembered his birthday early enough that if he mentioned it at dinner she wouldn't get all bent out of shape that it slipped her mind. He wanted dinner to be special, and intimate, and perfect. After all, he was just being selfish – _he_ would get the bigger gift if she saw things his way...

_oxoxoxoxoxoxox_

After lunch and their lesson, Joshua left and Logan got back to work, the afternoon productive and pleasant with the others in 'team geek,' as Alec had dubbed them, as they finished wiring another building into the main system and brought it live. Begging off the others' invitation to join them for a celebrational beer before dinner, Logan was putting away his tools and back to anticipating his evening with Max. It was already after five, and since the place still ran on a military-style mess hall that opened for dinner at six, whatever she was doing could likely be tabled soon. Then, forty minutes back to town, maybe fifteen minutes to throw things in to cook, and then he and Max would have an hour of dinner cooking for some wine, and some hors d'oeuvres, and some time to relax and just ...

"Logan can't go!" His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Joshua's bellow, at least a hallway away, followed by the sound of the big man running toward the tech center. Joshua appeared in the doorway, looking frantic, and barely comforted when he saw that Logan was still on the grounds. "Logan can't leave now," Joshua came toward him, his words half-plea, half-order. "Logan have dinner _here_ tonight."

"Oh ... well, thanks, Joshua; maybe tomorrow, but tonight I..."

"_No!_ Not _tomorrow,_" Joshua shook his head, firmly. "Tonight. Logan have dinner _here_ tonight," he repeated.

"Looks as if we're staying." With Joshua looming close, Logan couldn't see Max saunter up until the moment before she spoke. With an amused glance toward her older, emotional brother, Max shrugged, "I think you'll want to stay. We ..."

"_Max, no!"_ Joshua turned on her quickly to grab her shoulder, gentle but insistent. "It's a _surprise_, Max," he whispered, loudly enough that he'd be heard a room away.

She grinned, and spoke in a calming tone. "I was just going to say that Logan and I can have dinner at home tomorrow, probably without messing up our plans too much. Right, Logan?"

Before he could answer, Joshua's face fell, and he looked genuinely apologetic. "Plans? Joshua did not know about _plans_..."

Logan found himself gazing affectionately at the two, finding it easy to give in when whatever it was seemed so critically important to the man. "Joshua, it's okay. Max is right; our plans can wait a day. It's always been that way for us, right Max? We always have to be ready for last-minute changes. Nothing can't be rearranged."

Joshua looked from Logan to Max, who nodded in agreement, then looked back to Logan with a look of contrite realization. "Joshua forgot to ask again," he admitted, reminding them of his efforts to move from his solitary life to working within a community, with his growing awareness of others' needs and wants and schedules a part of that process.

Logan just shrugged it off, smiling easily for Joshua as he asked, "so what's going on that I need to stay?" At the look of appreciation and affection from Max at his response, Logan reached out for her hand and smiled wider when it his was taken.

"It's a _surprise_," Joshua repeated. "At six o'clock, in the dining hall. Logan stay here until then?"

"I'll keep him busy," Max promised with a purr. Logan's eyes widened in anticipation. Joshua wavered as he scented their pheromone production ramping upward, but turned to leave, more to do before dinner. After only a few steps, though, he turned and saw them, still looking into the other's eyes, and tried, "Max – six o'clock. It's important."

She looked back up and, seeing his anxiety, smiled softly and nodded. "I'll get him there, Joshua. Promise."

With that, the shaggy man nodded and disappeared back the way he came, and Max turned back to Logan and tipped her head, looking apologetic. "He's been working on organizing something all afternoon. And driving a number of people crazy. Do you mind too much that we stay?"

He pulled her down into his lap. "Not since you're staying too," he grinned.

"But you were planning something...?" she tried. "Were you going fix some new miraculous birthday dinner or something?"

Logan shrugged. "You were right – it will keep," he deflected. As she slid into his lap, he pulled her close and felt that now familiar bubble of joy in his chest at Max's expression shows of affection – and more – for him. The dinner would keep. He just wondered if nerve to spring his surprise would survive as long.

_oxoxoxoxoxoxox_

At six o'clock exactly, Max and Logan appeared in the doorway of the community's dining room and found what usually was a clean but spartan mess hall transformed into a colorful, festive party – at least a corner of it big enough to accommodate those staying for dinner on the property. The long tables, usually decorated only with food trays dropped on bare surfaces by each diner, now were strewn with clutches of paper flowers amid real sprigs of greenery and leaves collected from the property, and large posters with "Happy Birthday Logan!" and "Happy 32nd!" were hung close by, a clever product of Joshua's skilled illustrations coupled with decoration added by the community's children he'd conscripted for the afternoon, and their additions of color and glued-on scraps of material or twigs or randomly found artifacts made the posters festive and warm.

The sight of the guest of honor stirred a cheer of "Happy Birthday Logan" from those assembled, some less enthusiastic than others, but all there – even Mole and Alec – begrudged him a relatively cheerful 'happy birthday.' Max thought she might have seen a slight misting in Logan's eyes as he took it all in, the display as blatant a reminder that he was a part of this community as had been the allotment of his own room beside Max's, but it was hard to tell around the glow of his smile with it all. He even accepted the crown a couple of the kids had fashioned for him, putting it on his head with charm and aplomb and even wearing it though most of dinner, despite the fact that Max snickered nearly every time she looked at him wearing the silly thing. Just as he was thinking that the evening's fare of less- than-gourmet stew may have been one of the best meals he ever had, one of the younger X-6 series, who was so shy that she had yet to speak with him even after all this time, came out bearing a large cake also proclaiming his birthday and decorated elegantly. She put it on the table in front of Logan and, after a moment's hesitation, lifted her eyes hopefully to his, to judge his reaction.

"Lexi," Logan said, "this is beautiful. You made this?"

She dropped her head but nodded, her smile of relief nearly hidden. "Joshua helped," she said softly. "He drew the designs on the cake."

"But Lexi made frosting to shape like clay – see?" Joshua pointed to the small, three dimensional flowers along the edge of the case.

Logan looked up to the girl, maybe fifteen years old and still struggling to get past the horrors of her time in Manticore, and smiled his thanks. "You're very talented, Lexi. Thank you for doing all this." He tipped his head toward the cake and picked up the knife offered with it. "You want a piece?" Seeing her look up again to meet his eyes and smile timidly, Logan grinned wider and announced, "the cook gets the first piece."

As he cut more pieces of the cake and began handing it out, murmurs of appreciation for its taste as well as its design filtered around him. Logan looked up to see Joshua come near again and shifted to cut a square from the cake double in size to the others. "Joshua – for you." He held the piece up for the most unusual person he called friend. "Thank you for doing all this – it's more of a birthday celebration than anyone has done for me in a very long time."

"Even Max?" Joshua blinked.

"_Hey!"_ Max snapped, her brow drawn in an effort to look stern, but her eyes carried far too much happiness with the party for her response to be convincing.

Logan beamed his amusement. "Well," he began, looking for the right response, then chuckled in private appreciation, "Max's birthday surprises are ... a different kind of thing than this." He saw Joshua's expression settling into an acceptance of the idea, and Max's showing yet another level of satisfaction with events. "Joshua, I really appreciate your putting all this together."

"But not finished – Joshua has gift..." As he spun to head out of the dining room, Logan glanced back to Max, clearly wondering what the man could have managed in just a few hours. In only a moment Joshua came back in with a large, rectangular, sheet-draped shape and came close to stand it, on its edge, on the table at the front of the room. "Alec say that Joshua's paintings are valuable, and Logan like paintings, too," he announced to the room. "So Joshua paint for Logan." He swept the drape off the canvas to reveal a white, raw canvas stretched over a wooden frame. "Painting not done because Joshua learn it's Logan's birthday only today. But Joshua prepare the canvas today; see?" He swept a large, hairy hand over the stiffening surface of the canvas he worked on first thing after lunch, "and will paint special for Logan. Will be _Joshua 32_ for Logan's 32 year birthday."

"Uh ... you already did a _32, _Joshua," Alec said from the doorway. "You're up to_ 41 _already."

"Oh." Joshua looked crestfallen at the thought, but before Logan could put words together to assure him that any number would be alright, Joshua straightened a little and announced, smugly, "then Joshua start new series – Logan's painting will be first." He looked to the man he valued as his mentor and friend, and said with a smile, "will be _Joshua Freedom 1._"

The thought and the gift and the more than fitting "freedom" touched Logan, and he felt a surprising prickle in his eyes for the second time that night. "I can't wait to see it, Joshua," Logan said, his words heartfelt. "Thank you."

"Joshua just saying thanks to Logan for being good friend to everyone." He lay the canvas down on the table and came around to the other side of the next table, where Logan and Max sat, to retrieve the cake Logan had given him. Taking a big bite, Joshua beamed his approval of the cake and added, "Joshua also thank Logan for having birthday. Cake just right!"

_oxoxoxoxoxoxox_

Some hours after the dinner – after more talk, more cake, more work and even more talk – Logan and Max slipped away to their adjoining rooms, deciding to stay on the grounds, allowing them to leave earlier than planned the next day. After dinner, and after the evening wore on, Max had seen that Logan had quieted a bit, though clearly still moved by Joshua's efforts and the assistance he'd gotten in celebrating their resident non-transgenic's birthday.

She came to stand in the doorway between the rooms they were assigned in the property's restoration, former offices already sharing easy access, and watched as, despite the hour, Logan poured water into his French press to make coffee. "Pretty good party, huh?"

He glanced up at her and smiled, clearly remembering the evening. "It was great. I meant it when I told Joshua it was more than I've had in a long while – we all get so busy sometimes, we don't take time for things like that anymore." He thought again about what he said, then added guilty, "well, 'anymore,' for some of us. I don't suppose you or Joshua or most of the people here ever had much of a chance for a birthday party, even if they know when their birthdays are." He looked back at the coffee press as he added softly, "maybe here we can start traditions like that, to make up for what you haven't had."

_A perfect opening_, Max thought, as she pushed off the door frame and wandered over to him. "You okay?" she asked directly, her own voice gentle. "You seemed to get ... I dunno, maybe even a little sad tonight."

Seeing the affection in her eyes laced with some concern, Logan offered a hand to again pull her into his lap. "I'm fine," he assured her.

"The party throw off your own plans for tonight?" she pressed. At that he grinned a little, and shrugged.

"Not too much. Maybe something to look forward to for tomorrow."

But there was something more behind his words, something she could almost see still chugging away in his thoughts, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "What were you planning, Logan? Something for tonight, especially, for your birthday?" When his eyes gave him away, she nudged, "there's still nearly an hour left to your birthday, you know."

He laughed quietly, but had dropped eye contact, a sure sign he was hiding something, so she waited – she had learned that if she had just a little patience, there wasn't much Logan wouldn't tell her, now that they had thrown off any pretext about being 'not like that.' And, as she predicted, it was only another moment or two before he spoke.

"I'd been thinking ... everything you'd gone through in your life, everything you'd gone through these past months." His voice was soft. "Now that we're together ... I'm happy, every minute of life now, every day with you. I love you, Max; I love being with you, however you want us to be. But I know that there have been times that _you_ haven't been happy being 'different,' that sometimes, you just wanted to be a 'normal girl.'"

Max watched him carefully as he spoke, fighting the small sense of worry at his sudden analysis. He truly had seemed so happy recently; she loved him with all her heart and believed he loved her too. She fought against holding her breath, holding onto the hope that he really loved her as she was...

"You deserve that chance for 'normal,' Max. I'm being selfish, because ... because what we have now is perfect, and maybe it's wrong of me to risk that. I have no idea if you would want this part of 'normal,' or any of the stereotypical trappings, but ..." He reached into his pocket and, palming something as he spoke, swallowed, hard, before looking up at her. "But it's my birthday, so I decided to give myself a gift. The gift that I owe _you_ ... the choice of old-fashioned, traditional 'normal'... if you want."

He lifted his hand between them and slowly opened it, revealing a small, square box on his palm. With a soft, self-deprecating snort of laughter he added, "I was going to do it right, too, with the exo, on one knee, but ... if I wait until after my birthday I might lose my nerve." When she didn't move to take the box right away, he lifted it a little toward her. "Max?"

She'd been frozen at the sight of the small box, and now blinked away her surprise to lift it from his hand. Thinking of all the other things it _could_ be, but knowing deep down exactly what it was, she opened the box slowly to reveal a beautiful, sparkling diamond on a simple, elegantly twined band of gold. Her eyes swam in sudden emotion.

"Max ... whatever you want, however you want us to be ... I love you and if you want to be married, I want to marry you. And even if you say yes, I don't know if you want the dress and the harp and Margo's house, like Bennett had, or if you want to run away, just us, or something in between ... but I love you and I want you to be in my life for as long as you'll have me."

A tear spilled down her cheek, much as it had at Bennett's wedding. She smiled shakily. "Can I think it over?"

The disappointment in his face showed only for the briefest moment, but it was heartbreaking. "Of course, Max, whatever you want..."

"I _mean_ ... can I think over the dress and Aunt Margo's? 'Cos I'm thinking Original Cindy will want to have a hand in all the planning, and I don't know how she'll feel about the whole, white dress, 1950's hetero thing..."

The sheer joy and relief on his face was overwhelming. "Whatever you – and she – want," he nodded, his arms tightening around her as he radiated happiness. "Just tell me where to be and what to do."

"Just be _here,_ with me – doing this. That's a good start," she leaned in to kiss him, deeply. "Happy birthday, Logan. I like your 'selfish' gift."

"Me, too," he murmured, pulling her back for more. "Maybe even better than cake."

"Don't go crazy," she laughed, then quieted a little, herself. "I love you, Logan," she whispered. "Even better than cake." At that, he drew her close again to kiss her sweetly, then nuzzled her hair and moved his lips tantalizingly under her jaw and chin, grinning privately again at having found that very feline sweet spot, making the kitten inside of Max purr. She fidgeted a little at the moves he'd discovered to make her crave him, just as if she was in heat. "C'mon, Logan ..." she moaned. "Let's go have that coffee in bed."

He barely missed a beat at her words, but as he let a few more kisses trail down her throat, Max could feel his grin deepen across her skin at her words, and heard his low, rumbling growl as it did...

"_Best ... birthday ... __**ever**__..." _


End file.
